#also the leadup to that path ....

[martyrbat]

one path i was debating, the one before bruce ACTUALLY breaks it, is he and khoa never have their snow fight or their rain breakup. they stick together, they train together, they STAY together because of the loop and the trauma bruce faced, the realization that he's in love. love has always fueled him and after losing minhkhoa again and again, after cradling his corpse again and again, he actually chooses khoa. he chooses to believe in his honey-promise of returning to gotham as men instead. and like.... that alone i want to write and but the time loop aspect can very quickly get sidetracked or forgotten about and like... NO idea how to tackle it with the skill it deserves lol

@martyrbat

[ashotofogdensoldfirewhiskey]

how does it feel to carry the hinny fandom on your back?? bc you eat up these fics every time 😍😍😍

If I can contribute to the survival of my OTP then I will have done my job. I know this is not at all what you meant, but using this as an opportunity to shout out some of my very favorite fics also carrying the hinny torch:

I love anything by @starlingflight, but particularly:

Bewitched - Spooky Halloween, Muggle (kind of) AU.

Someone Else's Life - I LOVE the characterization in this one, and it's tied up in a really interesting Auror case

Priorities - THIS IS CANON TO ME. Missing HBP moment.

Fallin' All In You & Everything I Wanted - THE definitive missing moments fics - the leadup to and the entirety of hinny's too-short canon relationship. THEY ARE EVERYTHING TO ME.

@takeariskao3 READ HER STUFF, HER HINNY ANGST MAKES ME FEEL SO MUCH:

It's a Match! - Muggle AU, textfic, excellent characterization

my hand's at risk (i fold) - I didn't think anything could make me pro slytherin!Harry but THIS DID. Inter-house quidditch rivalries

Spring Fever - Omegaverse, enter at your own risk but the characterization is chef's kiss. (ngl I had no idea what this meant when I started reading)

The Path From You - Hinny second chances AU. The PINING. The characterization. The mystery. Bodyguard AU sort of??

Already Gone - currently being reworked and re-uploaded but cannot go without mentioning, bc it's that good. Hinny amnesia fic. Keep an eye out

@whinlatter is a mad genius:

Beasts - Ginny's 7th year, canon compliant. SUCH a good character study and deep dive into Ginny, and tbh the most realistic portrayal of the year post war I've ever read. Great hinny moments, their relationship feels so real.

the room at the top of the house - missing Beasts moment but tbh works as a standalone, it's so good.

think/hope - HBP/DH missing moments, post hinny breakup. Has anyone made hinny angst more beautiful? I think not.

Orchards - THE Hinny 6th year summer fic, like it could not be more perfect.

Others you should check out

JSYK ILY by @brightlybound - such a cute textfic that I fell in love with, Muggle AU.

everything i am is yours by @brightlybound again - Muggle AU, childhood friends(ish), so heartwarming and adorable

Persist and resist the temptation to ask you by @nuatthebeach - I'm such a sucker for a childhood friends to lovers fic and this takes the cake

The In-Betweens by @honeydukesheroine - Missing HBP moments, could be canon

@floreatcastellumposts has so many moments I love in her Missing Hogwarts Moments series

I'm sure there are so many others that I'm forgetting at the moment. Pls feel free to reblog & add your favorites too, make it a hinny love fest.

[felikatze]

I think Happily Ever After and The Cage both explore some similar topics in inverse ways and once again the Prisoner and the Damsel are twisted mirrors of one another

Pristine Cut spoilers and discussion of abusive relationships below. One suicide mention but it's STP what do you expect tbh

Compilation of rant I went on on discord 👍

prisoner and damsel are very much always parallels since u take the same path to get to them so they're both versions of the princess that you the player Trust, right. and the Greys are a betrayal of that trust if you kill them, and all that. obvs w the prisoner being reluctant trust and the damsel being unconditional because Knife.

but HEA and Cage are both about being Trapped. In Cage, the Princess has seen the same thing happen twice now, she's disillusioned, she's never going to escape. It will be The Same Thing, Forever.

WHICH IS. THE EXACT SAME AS HEA. The Princess believes she is never going to escape. That it will be Just This, Forever. And both of them believe that it *has* to be Just This Forever even if they don't *want* it to be.

Both of this is shown through an Externalized Force. in Cage, that is the Princess' body, which she has conceived as separate from herself. The body simply acts as it must, which she has no input over. Ignoring, of course, that she can *make it stop.*

And that's the same way HEA can't imagine she'll ever escape the Smitten! She's afraid and scared of change, of the torches going out!! But she wants it more than anything!!

Yet these two routes are foils for each other, too. Bcuz in Cage, it's the Princess who enforces the pattern, and in HEA it's the Hero. (part of him, anyways.) What's interesting here too that both of the routes result from a breakdown of communications.

I said in my big long rambly Cage post, but Cage route doesn't happen bcuz Fate, it's bcuz the Princess wants the Hero to carry her head out and he just *doesn't get it.* He just didn't understand what she wanted.

And the leadup to HEA, everyone in Hero's head is upset because they can't communicate to the Princess what is freaking him out, and Smitten tries to... well... show her, I guess.

(Post-rant addition: Hey, both the Prisoned and the Smitten kill themselves to get their points across. Add that to the parallels tally!)

also like abusive relationship metaphors on both ends tbh. Smitten doesn't respect Princess' autonomy at all. I think part of that is the end of Damsel means he doesn't think she *has* any interiority when it's Hero + Paranoid/Opportunist who want the Princess to be a person instead of a doll, which causes her to be a Person Again in HEA. But Smitten is, again, just so stuck on the vision of Damsel who no longer exists.

+ you could also read Damsel chapter in the context of HEA as just seeing that this is the first person who could conceivably save her so she is leaning in HARD to the romance angle because she sees it as the best way to finally get out. Got herself into the romance out of desparation and now she's stuck and regretting it.

So TLDR Smitten doesn't actually respect Princess as a person and just wants her to be this perfect image he has of her, and we see also in HEA how he literally restrains Princess + Hero and deliberately scares Princess when she even dares voice her own opinion. Smitten sucks so bad in this one and it's shit of him but also thematically interesting and again a good escalation of his character.

Cage on the flipside is the typical "I can't help myself" excuse. See, *she's* not at fault here. It's her *body* doing this! Really, nothing could change this. And u see the rebuttal of that angle from the Hero's dialogue options ("You're making a choice. You're choosing violence *right now.*)

No matter how often she says she's just a head, she's still the one who physically restrained the Hero (wow, just like the Smitten!), it's her who refuses to listen to anything the Hero has to say (wonder who that reminds me of), and it's her who is hurting him, on purpose, to feel better about herself.

the "good" endings to these chapters (as much as there are no wrong endings) meaning leaving with the cage's head / dancing with hea under the stars, both of these only occur once Hero/HEA are finally heard and acknowledged. Cage is so rattled that the Hero didn't bring the knife that she finally actually listens to a single word he's got to say and the two can break out, and the final torch in HEA only goes out once Princess says "I'm so tired of this." and has the courage to say what *she* wants and is *listened to.*

in conclusion (x2): STP good 👍 i love you missus the cage

[skyloftian-nutcase]

Lullaby is also one of my favorites too because she's the FIRST cold badass ninja princess.

YES SHE IS THE OG SHEIK AND THE ONLY ONE THAT MATTERS (no offense to those who like HW Sheik, but... I can't get behind it because it made no sense and I was like "STOP STEALING OOT ZELDA'S THUNDER" lol)

ajfieowajfekw I LOVE LULLABY. Like. This girl. Her journey is honestly so similar to Flora/BotW Zelda's! If you look at it, the leadup to their journeys is very different, Flora is being crushed under the pressure and expectations with no training to assist her, and she's not naturally talented in her magic. Meanwhile, Lullaby is blessed/cursed with her ancestor's prophetic dreams, and she seems to be fairly in tune with her magic as a result. But from there, there are so many interesting parallels - both have the expectation/premonition of evil coming. Flora has a direct path she's supposed to take but can't, while Lullaby has no direction and forges her own plan as a result. People try to have faith in Flora while she's failing time and again in figuring things out, meanwhile nobody believes Lullaby except for a feral child and her personal guard and she'll stop at nothing to get the job done anyway. When the time comes and all hell breaks loose, Flora may not immediately be able to stop it as she still hasn't figured things out, but the evil forces her hand and she finally gets it together and holds it off for one hundred years. Meanwhile, Lullaby, who had her ducks in a row, inevitably is the cause of all the destruction and has to go into hiding and train herself up to fight the calamity that got her father murdered and destroyed her kingdom. Flora may blame herself for the Calamity, but it wasn't relaly her fault. Lullaby, on the other hand, directly caused Hyrule's fall. And that girl picks herself up, learns to fight, and has to stay hidden from the enemy while watching her kingdom burn more and more, and then she guides the Hero and OH MY GOSH I LOVE HER.

OoT Adult Timeline Zelda is so freaking interesting!!

[invinciblerodent]

Y'know, puttering around with my recordings, I think I really am going to give Davrin's romance with Ver a pretty serious twisting around. Rewrite some things a bit, change things around, keep most of the "slow burn" of it intact- but also add in the "friends with benefits" elements that I feel match what he says in the check-in scene after the point of no return better.

I think I have a post from like, months before release, when all we knew about the character was "charming Warden (who may or may not have been the Storm Coast team's commander in '41)", about how I sort of expected his to be the romance that starts off more casual (with the expiration date all Wardens have, it's not surprising that someone who's been one for at least ten years would be hesitant to enter any genuine emotional entanglements, platonic or romantic), and then for him to find himself falling for Rook unexpectedly (and kind of against his will) anyway.

And from some of that late dialogue, I still think that that may have been the exact intention, initially, but maybe they didn't want to create too big a disparity between the different romance paths, or like they didn't want for it to come off like they weren't taking him as seriously as the rest, so the path sort of ended up getting a bit... I don't wanna say "subdued", but I can't think of a better word lol. Brought to match the pacing of the others and the overall story more, that's more like what I mean.

.... Anyway, I kinda think I wanna have them sleep together for the first time either after his personal quest (no more distractions, clearly established romantic interest in- and some commitment to one another, but with still an opportunity to angst about everything else) or preferably, that night after drinking with Lucanis.

I'm leaning towards the latter thought, specifically because it'd be clearly a very, very bad idea.

It'd be far too fast, far too early, I got that scene like right after the Cauldron, so deep in the thick of his personal quest- plus, the mutual interest was barely expressed like one day prior to it, and there was alcohol involved. Which all kind of makes it perfect, because it's an awful time to toss that complication in there.

But, it gives me an opportunity to have the both of them keep thinking that it being just a casual, physical thing is what the other wants (despite the "well, I could see us heading somewhere, someday" of it), and to have their feelings developing sort of in the background of it-- and then!!!!! that forest kiss can also take a role more like another complicating factor, with the "heart of a halla" line being a bit more ambiguous.

Like, casually kissing your booty call/situationship/FWB you've been secretly falling for, it's a bit more touchy-feely than the previously established [they were not established] guidelines [there are no guidelines] suggest is appropriate [none of this is appropriate], but it feels right, and that alone makes it feel weird and confusing, ykwim?

But, then the whole "Most of my life, I've gone it alone. With you... I never want to go back." thing makes more sense being where it is, after his personal quest, to me at least. Because that sounds like a confession, and with being free from worries and the griffons safe (with Eldrin, in that game), there's a great time to have a long-ish, actually serious conversation about what this is and where it's going.

.... That would also mean that some of the bed scene dialogue doesn't make as much sense ("Is this all just for show"? "Just like I imagined"? Girl you know exactly if it's for show and what his hands feel like, you've been getting dicked down semi-regularly for weeks), but I can work with some tweaks to that lol. The final parts of it, about planning the future and getting soppy still make perfect sense, it's just those lines in the leadup that need some minor tweaking.

Idk, I really liked the in-game experience I had, and I love me a good slow burn, but I can't deny that it's more my style when "slow burn" doesn't also mean ".... so sex is a thing that happens only at the very end, when all feelings are resolved". I like it adding more uncertainty and confusion into the mix, and giving a sort of "oh, this is different now" feel to that first time once the feelings are also resolved.

(The date though, I wanna keep where and how it is exactly, because he mentions he got the tip for the picnic from Evka and Antoine, and I find it really cute to imagine him just sort of looking at them after speaking with Valya like.... "... they probably have the right idea of it, don't they. While we're here, let... let me just go ask. How to, uh. Do this whole. Romance thing, I guess. Make it sound, idk, casual. And chill. We're... chill." Never mind that Evka and Antoine are literally one of the most romantic couples any of them know, but yknow, nbd.)

(And then it goes all the way sideways? Love it. Love the "hey so this tea I thought would be a fun, cute thing for us to try made her trip absolute balls for a while, so maybe this outing is not a great opportunity to like, talk. Seriously. About how I may or may not be falling a little bit in love with her. And by 'little bit', I mean 'up to the very tips of my ears'. Nbd, just gonna... postpone, spilling my guts out for her perusal, I guess." of it all. A+, no notes.)

[warningsine]

Georgian lawmakers on Tuesday voted down a presidential veto of the controversial "foreign agents" legislation, clearing the way for the bill to come into force. 

The law, which has led to weeks of mass protests, would require media outlets and NGOs that receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as "pursuing the interests of a foreign power."

Lawmakers voted 84 to 4 to override a veto by President Salome Zourabichvili and pass the bill. Most opposition MPs walked out of the chamber ahead of the vote.

The legislation was put forward by the ruling Georgian Dream party in April and approved by the parliament earlier this month.

The bill has been widely criticized by the EU, UN, NATO and the US. Washington has announced travel sanctions over the measure.

The EU said that it "deeply regrets" the law's adoption. EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said the bloc was "considering all options to react to these developments."

Why did the president veto the bill?

President Zourabichvili, a fierce critic of the governing party, vetoed the bill on May 18.

In an interview with DW ahead of the veto, she accused Georgian Dream of jeopardizing the country's future and said the law had become a "symbol of a number of laws and measures and rhetoric that is taking Georgia away from its European path."

"What I think is important is that the country continues on its path towards Europe," she said. 

The government has defended the legislation, saying it is needed to ensure transparency and to keep a lid on harmful foreign actors seeking to detabilize the South Caucasus country.

Meanwhile, opponents have labeled the bill "the Russian law" because it is similar to measures pushed through by Moscow to crack down on independent media and dissent. Critics also say the bill aims to appease the Kremlin and restrict media freedoms in the leadup to Georgia's parliamentaly elections in October.

Protests again erupt in Tbilisi

Large crowds gathered outside parliament throughout the day on Tuesday, with a rally planned for the evening. 

There have been repeated clashes between demonstrators and police since the law was first proposed several weeks ago. 

Speaking from Tbilisi, DW correspondent Maria Katamadze described the situation as "very fragile, very volatile."

"This comes after the unprecedented domestic backlash from the streets of Tbilisi where mainly youth, Gen Z and grassroot movements have been protesting for over a month now," she said. "They say this is a national resistance to the government's actions that many critics say is going to damage the reputation of Georgia across the world and damage the relationship with the West."

[streets-in-paradise]

Random Chucky thought of the day:

Forgive me once more, but this is also inspired by Supernatural. i have an old season in the background while i'm doing other stuff.

I remembered of how in the earlier seasons of the show there was a recurrent reminder of how turning into a demon was the biggest fear of Dean. From subtext to a scene that literally throws that in the viewer's face, it was like super clear and presented as such dark posibility. However, in later seasons they made this nightmare come true and Demon Dean was… played as a joke. What was dissapointing tbh.

Now that I think about it, Chucky doing leadup to a posessed Andy that never happened feels very similar to this. For some reason, i fear that if Don ever explores that long established alternative path with a Chucky!Andy, the same could end up happening.

[awakened-dreamers-blog]

Ultrakill Layer 7 thoughts (spoilers obvi)

7-1 /// The Garden of Forking Paths: Great level. Super creepy and off putting, even with having watched the trailers for the level. The first time the mannequins activated for real scared me so bad that my soul fully left my body. The Minotaur showing up the first time also scared the crap out of me. Overall, the level captured the whole "labyrinth" vibe really, really well and the leadup to the Minotaur part of the level was great. Speaking of the boss, its visual design was really great and worked with the lore to make a surprisingly tragic story. The fight itself was a bit finnicky with the trams, but surprisingly easy once I got the hang of it, and the second phase was even easier (a bit too easy, imo).

7-2 /// Light Up the Night: I have mixed feelings about this level. The sound design and visual feel of the level are great, and some of the segments were really cool, particularly the clocktower and the library-looking part. I wasn't a fan of the fact that you could just go anywhere in the level at any time, that felt weird to me. I would have appreciated something akin to the sand in the Greed layer; as it is now, just being able to walk on relatively flat ground feels kinda boring. I have... thoughts on the Guttertanks, but those aren't about the level itself. The ambush when you return to the train station with the bomb was really well done imo. Probably my favorite section of the level was the library section, since the room design allowed for a lot of shenanigans with the sharpshooter pistol and the electric rail, so that wasn't as annoying as the first Guttertank fight.

7-3 /// No Sound, No Memory: Absolutely stellar level. The atmosphere throughout the entire level is excellently moody and eerie, and the lack of jumpscares (except for one) really contribute to the sorrow that pervades the level. The first three blood trees were fun fights I love the gardeny design of the first section. The friendly fire chaos of the last room was a ton of fun the first couple times, although there was a lot of stuttering. I do wish that any kills throughout the room contributed to the blood for the tree, since I died multiple times to the stupid blood puppets. That was really anticlimactic and kinda ruined the mood. Otherwise, a really good level.

7-4 /// ...Like Antennas to Heaven: An interesting boss battle, to say the least. The reveal of the Earthmover at the very beginning was *amazing* and I'm always a sucker for "climbing up a gigantic boss" sequence. The defense system was a fun stationary boss but it was pretty easy. The boss itself was really easy too, once I realized that I was just shooting towards the middle of a circle. Personally, I would have preferred slower moving lasers, more health, and an additional obstacle to fight/dodge. My main critique of the level is that it doesn't feel like a layer climax, at all. The hardest fights of the level were, by far, the ones against the Guttertanks and other normal enemies and not the intense, 1v1 duel that I like so much about the other boss fights. The Metroid Prime-esque countdown escape was really, really cool, though. I just wish the sequence was less about fighting random enemies and more about tough platforming. Also, I know that the golden arm is obviously the eponymous "Godfist" but I'm still not a fan of not getting an arm at the end of the first layer of an act.

Lore: Love how Hakita captured the feeling of a self-perpetuating cycle in the Final War. Reading about the individual stages of escalation was really, really interesting and marched the visual design of each enemy well. Can't wait to see which six-lettered King built the Minotaur for Minos (more than likely the next prime soul).

Mannequins: A fun and surprisingly challenging mix of Filth and Strays with an extra layer of horror. Incredible visual design and animation. I do wish they were a bit less bullet spongey because it doesn't really fit their aesthetic as is, but adding a few extra enemies to compensate.

Guttermen: Great visual design and lore. They're not too hard to deal with on their own, and I'm glad to have another use of the Knuckleblaster (Hakita, please, PLEASE let us map seperate buttons for each arm). When they have a hunch of other fodder around them, they make interesting counterparts to Mindflayers as high-priority targets.

Guttertanks: Ooooh boy. I really like some of the things about them, but I have a lot of issues as well. Having an enemy that forces players to either stay far away or risk a well timed dash to get some blood is an interesting shakeup, but I do think the punch should at least be parryable. As is, the punch feels way too fast to react to, way too high-damage to recover from, and knocks you back like a million miles. For enemies that are supposed to be long-ranged artillery type things, their ranged attacks are surprisingly easy to deal with (especially with the freezeframe rocket launcher) but their melee attacks are way more of a threat and they have way too much health. I would prefer it if they had either significantly less health (or some kind of massive vulnerability, akin to the streetcleaners) or if their melee attack was nerfed and their ranged attacks buffed slightly.

Other thoughts: The new puzzles with the golden orbs is interesting, but I would like if the Whiplash had slightly more of an autoaim. Thank Gabriel that the voids on the puzzle sections don't damage you. Also, my computer isn't the best, but I was having a ton of performance issues during the third and fourth levels. Nothing too crazy or fatal, just some annoying lag and stuttering.

Overall, Violence was a really great layer, one of my favorites. I do think it needs some minor changes and tuning, but I'm excited for the psecret level and the new alternate gun, plus everything else yet to come from Hakita.

[thelogbookproject]

The Unity of Skovlan, Entry 31: The General

The Unity of Skovlan is an upcoming unofficial supplement to Blades In The Dark about the fall and rise of the Skovlander people. This series explores what it is all about in the leadup to its September release.

As we enter the Fracturing Period, the final coastal fortress of Reaxh on the western coast has fallen. Queen Alayne, now attempting to avenge her late father King Aldric, has accepted that there is no longer a path to victory. All there is left is spite. For every inch the Akorosi take, the Skovlanders will make sure they pay for it with lives and treasure and leverage. Without any of the coast left, it is only a matter of time until Stonetable is captured, but that’s not going to be easy. Until that time came, the Skovlanders would fight, all the way up the bitter end. These were the days when the Skovlanders began planting the seeds of future revolution. If Skovlan was going to fall, the Skovlanders never would. The Unity War was ending, but even then, Skovlan looked to the future. One day, this would all matter.

What if the Skovlanders let a castle fall with the Squad hidden deep inside so they can sneak up and assassinate the fusion of Major General Armstrong and Ned Stark? That’s this Mission.

Seriously.

For real.

I conceived of General Teaves, the Ox of Akoros, as mostly Olivier Armstrong, a towering woman whose cold eyes and relentlessly brutal patriotism led her to success after success after success, all while wearing the huge black wolf pelt cloak of Ned Stark and wielding their enormous greatsword. Teaves is probably the single most powerful soldier the Squad will ever have to fight, and if the players still happen to have any qualms about outright assassinating enemy officers, this one is going to be extremely difficult (or the players may just want to give this Mission a pass).

As is introduced in the Opposition section, this is the Imperium’s Southern army, not the only army. Given my lore of Stonetable being the ancient and definitive capitol atop the mountains that cover the northern half of the island, losing the south or forcing the Akorosi out for now won’t change the course of the war — it would have long-term supply ramifications, and obviously affect the lives of the remaining Skovlanders there, but even if this Mission pushed back the entire Imperial army it wouldn’t be enough. That said, Teaves is also likely to be replaced if killed, which is why this Mission is so much more about costing the Imperium something and exacting personal vengeance on a hated foe — not that buying time while the southern army regroups isn’t a benefit.

As we enter the Fracturing Period, there are no longer any Valor rewards for making it back with anyone alive. Come back a failure and there’s no consolation prize. You’ll still get whatever you might earn from the Optionals, but Last Stands are really on the table now.

Additionally, kidnap is a permissible end state for Teaves, but this is a bit of a trap. It is very hard to take Teaves alive, and a couple of the Optionals will be ruinously hard without killing The Ox Of Akoros. It’s there if the Squad is still clinging to a moral objection to being assassins, which is a valid mindset, but at this stage of the war it really limits what can be done, and the players should feel that.

I’ve revealed one of a couple of Optionals that will get the Squad sidetracked from just tracking down and killing Teaves, pushing them to explore Castle Adriack further. I like this one because it emphasizes how the whole strategic point of this is delay. Picking up the pieces of the southern army and restoring it will take time, and the Skovlanders can try to regroup in that window or push their luck hitting the disorganized remnants. The longer the Skovlanders can keep the Imperium split between the two fronts (southern tundra and northern mountains) the longer Stonetable will hold. The Sneaking Mission Optional is going to take a ton of resources, probably accepting a ton of stress from Resisting alarm-increasing Consequences. I’ll say that while all five Areas of the Mission have Clocks, none of them is actually an alarm! This is both blessing and curse. On the one hand, the GM is going to have a bunch of things to tick that aren’t raising an alarm. On the other, the GM doesn’t have to wait to fill a Clock — any Consequence could rain guards on the players’ heads. Of course, given the situation, that would basically be an instant Desperate Position so it would eat up a Risky Consequence to impose that, but the players are always one bad roll from jeopardizing this Optional Objective. The last one is a big danger, as it requires alerting the army that something is happening, but it doesn’t inherently expose the Soldiers. There should be some leeway on this one, in that the literal killing doesn’t have to be obvious, the staging can do it. It’s not actually that tough (as we’ll explore in a minute, The Ox is on the roof turret, and pushing them over onto the soldiers working far below would do it) but it will make escaping much harder, and figuring out a way to do this while also doing the Kidnap path will be challenging.

This is how the players stowed away during the takeover of the Castle, and with a Controlled or Risky Position they’ll probably still be hidden in the Passages leading to the low levels. Finding and using the Passages is the key to the Sneaking Mission, but their unpredictability gives the GM a ton of flexibility to put together setpiece moments. As mentioned here though, don’t get bottled up in the passages or risk a quick death.

This is, ultimately, a bit of staging ground for the final encounter. If the Squad gets in and disables the guards, they’ll have a bit of time to breathe and put things together. The safe represented by the Clock is, ultimately, interesting without being strictly helpful. It isn’t an Optional Objective. If the GM has an idea for a reward, go ahead, but it’s mostly a narrative victory and a thing to have to choose to carry or leave behind. If you’re really looking for a mechanical boost from it, I’d suggest +1 to the next Engagement roll for the morale improvement. The final Feature is a “shortcut” to victory if the players try it. They’ll need to stay hidden as the General comes back in and eventually goes to bed, easier said than done, but if they get there it will make quietly killing Teaves much easier. It’s still no instant-kill, as Teaves’ reflexes and strength will keep them from being flawlessly murdered, but it’s much easier than the next Area’s Clock. That said, if the players do this, they have definitively embraced being assassins, and the “immediately panics and terrifies” Optional is blown, as Teaves likely wouldn’t be discovered until morning, which is hardly immediate.

Teaves knows something is up the moment the Squad is on the stairs to the roof. They don’t know what, and don’t immediately find the Squad or anything, but they’re not at ease. Fighting them is an absolute nightmare — a 12-step Clock is huge for killing a single person, and their immunity to Group Actions will keep everyone on their toes. If the Squad skipped the side Objectives and took the least Stressful paths up, they can probably take Teaves on. If they’re already getting tired, this fight is going to suck. Beyond the Group Action immunity though, the rules are still normal, so it’s not like instantly Desperate or anything. Play carefully and don’t get too unlucky with the rolls, and the General can be whittled down. Plus, once on the roof, the howling wind and the private bedchamber below means the players don’t need to worry about alarms. It’s as close to a private showdown as the Squad are likely to ever have, and the Ox is balanced to fight a full group alone.

The amount of focus the escape requires is very context-dependent. If the players are trying to take Teaves with them, or if the alarm is raised (whether from previous action or from the final Optional Objective) and the way is especially blocked, play it out. If the players are still succeeding on the Sneaking Mission Optional, play it out. Otherwise, probably cut past it.

Next time, we’ll take on a very different Mission: The Siege.

The Unity War releases for PWYW on September 1, 2023. Check out https://tinyurl.com/tuos-details for the rest of this series! Sign up for my Patreon at https://patreon.com/thelogbookproject for a preview, and full early access to the game! See youWednesday!

[editorsusan]

Eight years ago today, my husband and I took a lovely trip to Fort Bragg. I had been under a huge amount of stress at work, and he wanted to take me away from all that for a few relaxing days. We spent lots of time just sitting and watching the ocean to give my psyche a chance to unwind a little. We also did some fun, touristy things like explore shops downtown and ride the Skunk Train.

We also didn't know on July 4, 2013, that I would be getting laid off from my incredibly stressful job in mid-August, about six weeks later, which was actually a blessing because I really didn't want to quit on my own, so getting forced out solved that problem. I had been with that company for eight years.

It wasn't long after that layoff that Anna reached out to offer me an opportunity to work at the Sacramento Bee on-call, which I gratefully accepted. I (like many others) felt honored to work for McClatchy Co.'s flagship newspaper, and I worked hard there, eventually getting promoted to permanent part-time status and then, later, full-time. I went from an on-call copy editor to a Copy Editor I and then Copy Editor II and witnessed many difficult changes as the Bee's copy desk was reduced from a staff of (if I remember correctly) over 40 people who produced not only the Sacramento Bee but also the Modesto Bee and the Merced Sun-Star and later added the Fresno Bee and the San Luis Obispo Tribune, and then was regionalized into a team called News Desk West, which added team members and more newspapers for us to work on from Washington state (with its papers the Bellingham Herald, the Olympia Olympian, the Tri-Cities Herald, and the Tacoma News-Tribune) and Idaho (the Idaho Statesman). In short order McClatchy would also regionalize its copy desk units of its Central region markets as News Desk Central and its Eastern region markets as News Desk East. This was all a leadup to the current consolidation of McClatchy's copy desk operations into a single unit headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., now referred to as the Publishing Center. After many rounds of layoffs and buyouts and downsizing/consolidating/"optimizing," the Publishing Center was comprised of about 60-ish staff members mostly working from home and scattered across every time zone of the U.S.

I had seen and also been part of many rounds of McClatchy layoffs during those years, but every time I always had some path provided to me that allowed me to return to work right away (maybe with a different department, maybe with a different supervisor, like the lovely Rita, etc., but there was always a way back in somehow, still with McClatchy).

And then we got word in March of this year that the Pub Center staff would be decimated once again as McClatchy would be outsourcing the page design tasks to a contractor called EKCS in New Delhi. Our team of about 60 would this time be cut to about 36. And this time I would be laid off with no apparent pathway to return to the team. After eight years with McClatchy my job would be coming to an end. Eight years after I was laid off from my previous job, where I also worked for eight years.

Eight years. Eight years. Eight years. It's like my working life is being carved up into these eight-year chunks. (If there's some hidden significance there, I have no idea what it is.)

I really wanted to make it to at least 10 years with McClatchy, but that doesn't look like it will happen. And I'm still more than 10 years from retirement age, so I'm going to have to find a new career path forward from here. (As of right now I have no idea what that will be, either.)

I'm mentally tired and overwhelmed by the unknown future. I feel relatively certain that things will work out in the long run, but the control freak in me doesn't like the current uncertainty. And I'm just so, so, so tired right now that I'm finding it nearly impossible to focus on looking for a new job while the countdown on my current job gradually runs out. (I think I have 29 work days left as of Wednesday, my first work day this week.)

This life transition is about the only thing that has been on my mind lately, but I try to avoid posting about it here (because if I posted about it as often as I think about it, that's all anyone would ever hear about from me … and that would get pretty darned old for all y'all pretty darned quick).

[bushfulofbirds]

2/

God forbid the story actually utilises the one bit of lore it manages to introduce in a solid way within the span of that intro. Nobody is trying to make you buy jack shit

The intro: "Hey this is a resource that humans use to fight monsters and has been a literal foundation that allowed them to establish their societies. This is the villain trying to remove this powerful resource from people by force". Hbomb: "OK but why is this at all important tho"

This section is frustrating to watch lmfao

This lack of (clearly displayed) payoff on the dust robberies in v1-2 is something that's also been brought up in the This Is Basically RW,BY video but does hold merit. However what is the point of the leadup to this point being as convoluted as it was.

OK if you claim that they changed this part of the plot... where's your backup my dude. You speak of mis-utilised and limited setups for 10 minutes straight and proceed to immediately create one yourself 😭

He's also fully ignoring the dialogue so far

"I used a cool technical terms to make this commentary look more solid"

No-one is watching the intro and going "dust! Sold!" Because as you so disappointedly mentioned just a moment ago the next scene sets up more stakes around dust and "sell" that to the viewer

"This wasn't explained in a lore dump straight away therefore it's bad"

"The basic premises, target demographics and experience levels of different writers who got to work in different levels of formality will now be completely ignored for an arbitrary comparison that I will use to put ATLA on a pedestal to automatically communicate that other approaches to worldbuilding are bad by default"

Bro literally calls any audience member of a fictional premise a "fucking idiot" jokingly or not that tells me a lot about how this guy perceives audiences at large (inc this video essay)

I know for a fact that if not for Pyrrha's exposition dump existing the crit here would just extend from EXPLANATION BAD to say there's no explanation or grounding for what Ren is doing in that fight

*Twists Pyrrha's background as a character from trained combat athlete to regular ordinary magical teenager who magically knows her shit*

So Jaune not already knowing any combat skills whatsoever and being put in a position where he has to take the bad path to get to where he aspires to be (and in turn being forced to train and work harder to catch up) is inherently bad? Sure, having his and Pyrrha's Emerald Forest interactions be about the exposure is pretty on-the-nose (though definitely not a unique issue). I think that if we wanna really stretch this out we can even say that actually in REALITY not everyone grows up knowing much about their family histories or disconnected from their heritages etc. for a myriad of reasons. So I guess to me it never really seemed far-fetched that he wouldn't necessarily know much besides "I come from a lineage of warriors." So sure, they could have made it more explicit that he was kept away from a lot of that as per the Harry Potter comparison, but that doesn't necessarily boil down to such a terrible and nonsensical thing, either.

Sure, they use Jaune as a vehicle for exposition in v1 a lot. I think that arguably it also tells a lot about Weiss' character rather than forcing her to "pause" being one (hyper-researches her competition to stick with the high profile student and plan her way through school that way). Again this really skips over the part actually showcasing this, which is just very selective and doesn't give the full picture and context of the scene.

"Pyrrha helping Jaune in the Emerald Forest and offering to train him automatically equals trading her characterisation for exposition." Early season Pyrrha and removing her Autonomy in favour of helping Jaune progress through the plot is another argument, though, and I think that putting them together like that is probably not the best approach.

"Jaune is a self-insert and an excuse from Miles to hog screentime away from the plot"

Dude why use a complete other person speaking to somehow justify Miles wanting to hook his "self-insert" with Pyrrha

"Why do semblances exist" because it's a cool and interesting dynamic to work with from an action perspective maybe. For someone claiming that the whole series is based on that it seems interesting to not touch on that tie at all. Criticising the worldbuilding around it is fine and all but honestly there's no harm done in their actual existence

"I'm not trying to be mean but I'm also going to tear this to shreds right here right now for two hours"

I think that one of the bigger writing fumbles in RW,BY is literally Weiss' "no such thing as magic" line. Like yeah Raven turning into a bird is absurd even by general RW,BY power limitations, having the story of the maiden powers be as is something that feels very hard to believe within the concept of the world (whaddaya mean old man Oz gave these girls a special power lineage?) I just think it's down to poor phrasing.

"Everyone knows the name of [Pyrrha's] ability" ok who is this everyone outside of Ruby, Weiss and the baddies who have some extra planning and access points to the whole picture

OK but as soon as people cut to some exposition dialogue mid-fight then it removes the pacing of the fight itself. Monty's style is not like that and as soon as this was done in Volumes 4 and 5 it only led to more people complaining and dropping the show entirely (hell you just complained about it being done in Yang vs Adam).

Ah there we go 50 minutes in we get to the first genuine bottom line statement of "RW,BY suffers from mismanaged story beats which mean a lack of investment and exposition in critical early points that are compensated for too late down the line."

I honestly think that "if you don't feed me everything explicitly off the bat then this is automatically unwatchable and confusing" is also not a healthy approach? Sometimes abstracting things doesn't work but it also doesn't mean that everything needs to be verbalised to you for it to be considered "good." It's about when and how it's done, and how it can really affect your storytelling if done wrong. I think that's what he's trying to get at but the way he does it comes off much more as it needing that spoon feeding to work.

Sure WoR isn't really the most engaging lore companion but shouldn't the whole reasoning given in the video for WHY it's the way it is be seen as like. A good sign?

Whyyyy is this video written like this

Has this guy never seen recap episodes be scattered between main episodes before? It's not ideal or fun but it's also not unique and I wish that was something that was also acknowledged (but hey that way you get less of an excuse to rap about it)

Congrats you struggled to grasp the concept from the main show alone your experiences are not universal

"When they did this implicitly it was great but once they actually elaborated on them in the classroom setting it's BAD and STINKY" (the last 30mins have been a back and forth on this guy's convoluted explanation of good vs bad worldbuilding. Also more backtracking and rehashing.

"Monty writing good M&K writing bad and evil and stinky bleugh"

There's a lot of usages of footage of M&K goofing around or zoning out etc. to vilify them

[literally uses a commentary clip where the writers gush about Shane's usage of the action scene in a pretty coherent way to shit on their writing abilities]*

More twisting scenes into particular contexts to make them work for the argument

Very vague wording to suggest "Writers" means "Heads of the Production."

"Neptune is Kerry's creepy self-insert"

Tired RW,BY fan braves hbomb video after three years (he finally downloaded it of Internet Archive), more at 12

[lemongogo]

b/nha leaks

[avatar-news]

New official place names roundup!

Here’s a roundup of a bunch of major official place names that have been revealed in recent (or recent-ish) releases, which you might not know if you’ve only seen the original ATLA and TLOK shows where they remained unnamed, along with some cool new locations as well.

❄️ Agna Qel’a

Northern Water Tribe capital city

Etymology: unknown

Source: The Shadow of Kyoshi Chapter Two: The Invitation

🌋 Hari Bulkan

Elite residential district of the Fire Nation capital located in the dormant caldera of a volcano, home to the royal family and other high-ranking nobility

Also known as Royal Caldera City

Together with Harbor City at the foot of the volcano, it makes up the Fire Nation capital

Located on Capital Island

Etymology: Most likely Austronesian, where “hari” means king in Cebuano and Tagalog (related to “haji” in Old Javanese, “hadi” in Bikol Central and Waray-Waray, “adi” in Cuyonon, “ari” in Ilocano and Mansaka, and “ariki” in Maori (Polynesian)) and “bulkan” means volcano in Bikol Central, Dupaningan Agta, Tagalog, Waray-Waray, and Yogad, via Spanish volcán (similar etymological path as the “azul-” root of Azula and Azulon, meaning blue)

Source: Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game

🏝️ Water Tribe Sacred Island

A tiny island located near the equator halfway between the Northern and Southern Water Tribes

For thousands of years, disputes between the two polar tribes were resolved by meeting here

Claimed by the nearby Fire Nation in the leadup to the Hundred Year War

Source: Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game

🐺 Wolf Cove

Southern Water Tribe capital city

Has been through major changes in its history, growing and shrinking between a large city and tiny village multiple times

Etymology: Wolves are one of the few non-hybrid animals in the world of Avatar (along with bears, shout out to Bosco!)

Source: Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game

🐋 Whale Harbor

A prominent city of the Southern Water Tribe in the era of Avatar Roku

Illustrates how the Southern Water Tribe is a federation of many smaller tribes/settlements (for example Wolf Cove and Whale Harbor) each with their own local chieftains

Etymology: Unlike wolves and bears, whales haven’t been seen in Avatar, but they have been referenced (Whale Tail Island and Whale Harbor) so it’s possible they exist

Source: Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game

Most of these come from the recent official Avatar Legends TTRPG, which, if you missed it, also dropped the fact that Fire Lord Sozin had a sister: Princess Zeisan!

[gascon-en-exil]

Through Chapter 10 on my second, more Utility-focused playthrough. Lots of different paths this time.

The story so far: I went up to Chapter 10 specifically because what I was most interested in seeing in the midgame is how the story would handle its convergence points, and now I've experienced two of them from two different angles. The post-Aesfrost invasion arc is half old news from the first demo, but after killing Landroi Sorsley invades and you have to decide whether to side with Aesfrost or Hyzante (I went with Aesfrost - the Utility pick). This battle takes place at the same harbor as Chapter 1, only at night and in the rain. The rain actually matters for some of the mage characters...although I suspect that which side you pick for this story split only affects who the enemy is in this particular battle. It ends with Exharme popping up out of nowhere to say he captured Wolffort while you were away, foreshadowing Hyzante's magical purple bombs and being frustratingly badass as usual (he is the Camus equivalent for Benedict's route, as I've already seen). Then he just...leaves, and sets up exposing Sorsley's illicit salt trade to get the story back on track, along with Cordelia helping Roland escape the castle only for Benedict to have him fake his death as in the other route. For Chapter 9 I chose to transport the illegal salt which led into a second nighttime battle in the rain, this one on a map with a lot of variable elevation vs. Travis and Trish's bandit group, who are apparently just the only group of bandits in Norzelia since they pop up wherever the plot needs them to. I wonder how that'll be handled once I recruit them? Anyway, the salt goes to Frederica's uncle Svarog - I assume Exharme's counterpart in Aesfrost as a Camus figure - and after refusing to reveal Roland's identity to him I had to do a random arena fight to recoup the losses of pissing off the client. That's the second Chapter 10 I've seen set in an arena, identical in all but aesthetics and opponent (here Rufus, the mercenary elsewhere seen in Silvio's employ) to the one in the other route vs. Sorsley. At a bit more of a stretch this leads into both Serenoa and Sorsley getting calling before the Saintly Seven, where Sorsley is indicted for his salt trade and then promptly executed by Exharme - no trial of any kind necessary. Once again, Serenoa finds himself filling the vacant seat in the Saintly Seven, and tasked with getting rid of the Roselle under his family's protection.

Impressions on the story: I continue to be impressed, although it is sometimes a little transparent that the narrative has to force itself back into a linear path rather than branching further outward. Nothing feels particular egregious yet, maybe just a little rushed in places and random in others. On the other hand, it's good to see how different story splits give screentime to different members of the game's massive cast. Benedict's route dumps the knowledge of Clarus's underground arena right at the end to set him up as the third-to-last boss, but here I got to see and actively participate in it. On the flip side this route seems to have Sorsley's aide Booker disappear offscreen (he's killed in the other version of Chapter 9 I did last time) and hasn't made any mention of Silvio since he capitulated to Aesfrost. The world dumps on Roland even more, as in not revealing his identity to Svarog he's stuck having to act as the Dawnspear in a prize fight. The leadup to Sorsley's non-trial in this route also gives him a brief moment to praise Hyzante's happy populace, which I already know is going to turn into the major hook for his route. Days ago I saw people on Discord describing Roland's route as his being brainwashed by a cult...but that seems too simplistic an interpretation, in this game or in general.

Gameplay: I have all the conviction-based recruits now (except Maxwell since I think he's only available later on), although I've only used some of them sparingly because I'm trying to keep levels equal. Ezana is even better here than she was in the first demo, but Medina doesn't have much of a place in my army as she's an item-based healer and I rarely have the money to spend on consumables. Groma the dodge tank and Flanagan the flying tank are vastly more useful than Lionel who appears to be some kind of debuffing tank, and Picoletta's best use is oddly to have her decoy distract enemies since her other skills are so weak. I've only used Quahaug the time mage once, but he's got skills that are the equivalent of (from Fire Emblem) Warp, Foul Play, and a time rewind that can work as a heal so he's got fantastic support potential. The enemy scaling in New Game+ and the sheer variety of playable characters keep gameplay feeling fresh even on repeat playthroughs - and good thing too, as I'll need several more runs to see everything.

[missmarthanightingale]

so i’m rewatching s11 bc i wanted to figure out some stuff about ryan, but then i got distracted by my obsession with jodie’s doctor, so here are some Thoughts about how & why she doesn’t discuss her past over the course of the first four episodes.

in twwfte, she comes crashing through the train roof an amnesiac.  she remembers some things, but very little about herself - not even her name!  but she’s also very open at the start, cheerfully sharing whatever information she does have, even talking in some depth about what regeneration feels like which has literally Never Happened.  she’s not hiding at all.  at some point in the leadup to the confrontation with t’zim-sha on the crane, she remembers exactly who she is, & doesn’t shy away from it.  she is utterly herself in that moment.

but then grace dies.

grace dying, the doctor remembering, & the immediate crisis ending all happen more or less simultaneously, which makes it a bit tricky to analyze what went down.  the doctor was pretty open about sharing stuff before regaining her memories, but that was very much on her terms; by the time things have calmed down enough for people to be asking her questions, circumstances have changed.  but here’s what i think happened.

the doctor was still fucked up about bill & missy when they regenerated, but tuat had set them on the path towards healing.  she immediately encounters grace, who is brave & brilliant & who takes care of her, more than the others do, & who is kind of enjoying this adventure, quite visibly.  throughout the episode, the doctor is open, enthusiastic & largely optimistic.  she’s like this right up until grace dies the same night they met, doing exactly the brave, reckless sort of thing that one would expect the doctor’s companions to do.

after her confrontation with t’zim-sha, the next shot of the doctor is when she finds the others gathered around grace’s body, with ryan breaking down while graham tries to hold him, looking up at the doctor with a heart-wrenching expression on his face; not blame, not at all, but shock & grief which she can’t help but respond to.  this is an awful reminder of what happened with bill, & now the person she connected with most over the episode is gone.  this is the point where ryan, graham, & by automatic extension yaz, stop being her allies & relative equals.  they’re something she’s Responsible for, instead, & not in the sense that companions are.

by the time they start asking questions, she’s about ready to move on.  she has no intention on seeing these people again; she likes them well enough, but as far as she’s concerned they’re a temporary presence in her life.  if she was going to invite anyone along, it would have started with grace, & it died with grace, because i don’t think she’d ever have chosen to travel with people who’d lost something because of her.  why burden these temporary strangers with the weight & complexity of The Doctor, especially when she doesn’t really want to get into it anyway?  she’s leaving soon, so what would be the point.

& then, of course, she goes & takes them with her.

the number one goal in ghost monument is to get to the tardis & get her accidental kidnappees home.  that is explicitly what the doctor wants to accomplish in this episode.  they are even more her Responsibility than they were before, they are not there on purpose or by choice, they are still temporary presences.  so she doesn’t share, beyond the fairly meaningless anecdotes the doctor constantly throws out to perfect strangers, & she maintains an aggressively cheerful demeanour.  she’s treating them not as her companions but as Plucky Civilians Of The Week, because as far as she’s concerned that’s what they are.  of course they’re more than that, her minor breakdown & the emotional support they provide at the end is proof enough, not to mention she’s already coaching them in Appropriate Tactics for Associates Of The Doctor, but she is not ready to accept that yet, especially in the aftermath of grace & bill dying.

which is probably why the tardis then refuses to bring them home!

they end up in, what, 14 other places before landing in rosa?  the tardis is definitely doing that on purpose, forcing the doctor to grow attached to these people whether she likes it or not, & encouraging them to grow attached to her in turn.  it’s clearly working, since this episode involves her trusting them enough to send them off on their own, but she’s still in denial here, telling them that she needs to handle something here & they’re welcome to wait in the tardis while she does it.  this is really a ‘let me run a quick errand on the way’ scenario.  she still fully intends to take them home & leave them there, even if she might be starting to regret the necessity.

& it all culminate in arachnids, where she gets them home.  the tardis’ plan has worked, with both sides extremely hesitant to let that be the end of things.  yaz invites her for tea & she literally cannot say yes fast enough.  they get tugged on the sleeve by a mystery & none of them can stop themselves from diving headlong into it.  but still she can’t ask them to come with her, instead resigning herself to travelling alone.  they have to ask her, & before she accepts she gives them a warning.

that’s the closest she comes to telling them about herself.  warning them that she might not be able to keep them safe, implying that she’s failed to protect others like she failed to protect grace.  did they hear her?  maybe.

but it took so long to decide that they were going to stay.  they’ve already settled into their dynamic, & the doctor doesn’t want to damage that.  she likes the dynamic they have going, she definitely doesn’t want to rock the boat with difficult revelations at this stage, when she’s so suddenly been saved from the prospect of travelling alone.  at this point it’s just easier to keep the charade going, which she’ll keep up for the rest of the season, trying all at once to escape her past & keep from scaring her friends & avoid complicated questions which might end up with her all alone.

anyway, since this is clearly going to be a theme in s12, i thought it might be a nice time to look back at how it started!

[ask-jaghatai-khan]

Upsilon-28

A fanfic showing off my character, the Lord-Archmagos Chertovsky Upsilon-28, from my Sect of the Revelation Mechanism.

Read below the cut, or on my other blog.

Image of Quartermaster Rho by TomisJB

“Are you assured of this procedure’s safety, my Lord-Archmagos?” the adept asked, his half-modulated voice subdued yet still retaining but a hint of mortal apprehension.

Archmagos Chertovsky did not respond. Not at once. Like an inert golem of tangled metal, he stood with his inhuman eyes fixed on the suspension tank in front of him. Within the amniotic fluid of that arcane structure floated a figure in stark contrast to the elder tech-priest’s own. Whereas Chertovsky Upsilon-28 was a hunched being with an ill-defined silhouette broken by so many layers of intricate augmetics, the being within the tank was an unadorned human. More than human, even – perfection. They stood a head taller than any typical mortal, with a muscled physique somewhere between the lithe form of a trained assassin and the unstoppable power of one of the Emperor’s own Angels of Death. A dormant face like the visage of a masterwork statue, pale with fresh tissue and possessing a bone structure more fearsome than any living man or woman lulled atop the divine form.

Not one of the myriad trusted adepts within the operating room would comprehend the thoughts going through the Archmagos’ mind. Beyond the simple fact that the processors supplementing their more “youthful” brains were insubstantial compared to Chertovsky’s own databanks, they couldn’t know the depth of emotion felt by that otherwise cold and impassive tech-priest.

It was him. The figure in the tank, for how much it resembled no human who had ever lived, was him. Within the enhanced and perfected features of that vegetative husk hid the subtle markers of what the Archmagos had once been. He could remember, however dim those memories were – the shape of his nose, of his brows, the fine details of bone structure in those areas which had seen the least amount of modification. It was like those depictions of Imperial saints crafted by artists long after their subjects had passed into legend, idealizing the forms of men and women who had been but scarred wretches in their true lives.

The strange feelings that Chertovsky wrestled with in silent contemplation were made all the more powerful by the knowledge of his own current degradation. He had not been as diligent of late with the upkeep of his augmetics. Chertovsky Upsilon-28 was a being who preferred careful symmetry, efficiency, and greater thought given over to the aesthetics of his bionic enhancements than some more utilitarian members of the Martian cult. Yet in recent months, at the leadup to this procedure, he had focused on nothing more than ensuring he had the right tools for whatever task was at hand, his cyberized form lapsing more and more into an ill-defined morass of mechadendrites and layered servos. Not even of the highest quality, either, just simple factory-standards. This was his sacrifice – he’d waited for so long, he’d saved up so much, in resources and knowledge and all that was needed to perfect this great transformation.

What a shame, Chertovsky thought then as he pushed such mortal sentiments from his mind for the time being, fixated on the task at hand. You shall not be whole for long, creature. He spoke to his own un-twin. However fine that flesh was, it was still but a foundation for far greater enhancements.

—

Looking like a diminutive pest, a waylaid rat, the youth stood in the corner of the whitewashed room. They were an adolescent, almost an adult, but the with way they seemed so out of place, so fearful of their surroundings – they could not have looked more like a child if they’d tried. Robes of Martian red covered their wastrel form, but they were not the holy vestments of a tech-priest.

This place was so much different from anywhere that young boy had ever seen. Far removed from the brutal, industrial maze that dominated any civilized tract of Mars, this room was clean, sterile, almost comforting in its soft and bare décor. The youth had seen medical rooms before, but a handful of times, yet the quality of the Mechanicus’ own facilities was astounding. A simple waiting room in a surgical center was as a cathedral to the boy.

Sunken, flitting eyes darted to the steel door at one end of the room, as a prominent beep announced the arrival of the individual he’d been waiting for.

“Chertovsky – Germani—” the figure spoke as they entered, in a voice that was near musical in its synthesized smoothness, “You are the last one today. It is good that you made it.”

Compared to the wiry young human known as Germani Chertovsky, the being which now dominated the waiting room held little to reflect that it had once been human itself. This was Ben-Sheva Stith, though the use of his full name was reserved as an honor for those aspirants who managed to gain acceptance into the Mechanicus. To all others, he was Stith-E200, Magos Biologis and Ordinator to those myriad souls who sought to find purpose within the Machine God’s holy embrace.

Stith was a monstrous being, made all the more freakish by what parts of him were still in facsimile of humanity. Yet his charges did not fear him. Rather, they envied him. Stith had assembled his body in a bulky form that almost evoked the might of one of the Emperor’s great power-armored warriors, looking like a bronze statue come to life. From his back sprouted a mantle of servo-arms like the branches of a metallic tree, and his unmoving face was a mask of polished marble-hued stone with eyes like gleaming aquamarines. Yet where the tech-priest might have had normal legs, instead between the gaps in his crimson robes could be seen glimpses of his almost insectoid lower half. Stith’s centaur-like form, both majestic and intimidating, was a testament to what any mere mortal could become through the grace of the Omnissiah.

“Ave Deus Mechanicus.” Germani bowed, looking even smaller next to the grand form of the Ordinator.

“Against all odds you have completed your training as a novice and shall soon be inducted as a Rassophore within the holy order of Mars. This is a time for rejoicing, if ever such mortal emotions are to be indulged, Chertovsky!” Stith counseled the boy, “You shall soon be free of the frailties of your crude flesh and brought into the mechadendrites of the Machine God.”

The boy just kept his gaze lowered, though he gave a vigorous nod of understanding. Truth was, he felt as if he were about to throw up. It wasn’t all fear – the knowledge that his long transformation from a being of flesh to a being of iron would soon start proper via the most direct means was daunting, for sure, but he was still enthusiastic. Beneath simple red robes there was the form of a human who had seen ails beyond their years, and Germani longed to be free of the limitations of his base tissue.

“So tell me, Chertovsky, what will you give up?” the Ordinator asked then, instruments whirling about his head on their hydraulic stalks, funneling myriad unknown data-readouts into Stith’s processors, analyzing the charge in front of him.

“What?” the novice asked, somewhat dumb in his tone.

“Come, mortal, you know,” Stith waved his brassy hand, “Upon your ordination you shall receive your first core bionics. Spinal enhancements and neuro-ports and those basics which shall see your path towards enlightenment eased in these initial steps. But this is not fully standardized. You must choose something else to give up. A sacrifice of flesh to the Machine God.”

Germani looked about the room as if the answer might be written on the wall somewhere. He had indeed thought long about this choice, though now just as it was to be made, his mind had been flushed clear of all thoughts.

“M-maybe – maybe my legs,” the novice gestured down, “Like the Skitarii.”

He spoke of the Tech-Guard, the line warriors of the Mechanicus. To a soul they replaced their lower legs with durable augmetics, to honor those first nomads of Mars whose flesh and bones had been scoured on their long treks through the red sands. Germani himself just thought about the acute pain in his own legs. He was often in pain, though to the point where he had long since adjusted to the constant aches within his body, dulling them into one subconscious sense of weakness. Beneath his sturdy work-boots was skin afflicted with sores and callouses, bones compressed and tendons strained from an upbringing within a Martian landscape which was holy to the tech-priests but near unlivable to any normal lifeforms.

“A noble choice, and a popular one,” Stith might have grinned were his face not set in stone, “The prerequisite enhancements to your spinal column shall ensure you will not be hindered by these replacements, and they shall be only of benefit to you. But can you think of nothing else?” he asked then, trying to beckon some zeal out of the timid boy.

Germani thought again and considered how even now the world seemed lopsided. His left eye, which had been singed by a plume of sparks when he’d been but a child, and even now gave him little more than vague shadows in place of genuine sight.

“My left eye?” the novice offered, “So that my sight might be more pure?”

“Also good, and also common,” the Ordinator approved, “We may do both surgeries, if that is the offering you are willing to make?”

But Germani’s mind was racing now, and he was so aware of all the acute pains and ills which he had put up with his whole life, brought about by his growth on a world of poison, ash, sand, and steel.

“My hands, maybe?” he suggested, “Or my lungs? Maybe my stomach so I’ll no longer be a slave to hunger?”

Stith raised his hand, and the boy stopped at once. Yet when the Magos spoke, his synthesized voice was absent anything but pride.

“There will be time for such things later on in your journey. This is but one offering, one ascension which you shall make today. Though your ardor is laudable. Nurture that feeling. Couple it to your lust for knowledge, and one day you might find unity with the divinity of the Omnissiah.”

With that, the tech-priest beckoned for the youth to follow him to the next room. Though he had not yet been given his new name, Germani thought many times after, as all of his order did, that his rebirth as Chertovsky Upsilon-28 began not when he donned his clergy robes, but when he laid down upon that operating table.

—

The Lord-Archmagos oversaw the dissection of his own homunculus with exacting rigor. Half the time, it was not the ministrations of his trusted adepts or the automated algorithms of the surgical servitors that progressed the operation, but his own sterilized mechadendrites. These younger tech-priests were some of the best available, to say nothing of their loyalty – Chertovsky had contracted their services from Set-E299, apprentice to his old Ordinator and one of the few individuals on Mars the Archmagos could count as a true “ally” – yet still their skills paled when put up to some of Chertovsky’s most ironclad specifications.

Layer by layer the unneeded tissue of the grandiose clone-body was stripped away in preparation for its encasement in divine metal. Like any experienced Magos Biologis would confirm, not all flesh was so impure or antithetical to the Machine God’s designs. It was but one aspect of the myriad systems through which that holy Order expressed itself, though prone to failure and degradation. As such, but a handful of organs and the like would be kept from this corpse – the simplistic efficiency of such structures as marrow, certain neurons, and hormonal regulators. In time they would be upgraded by supplements of steel and copper and glass, but they would be left intact. The rest – the muscle, the unneeded bones, the vestigial tracts – would be recycled.

Cloning was in itself not a difficult task if one was not looking to create life. To grow a shell was simple, and drew upon long traditions of Imperial science dating back to the Emperor himself. Still, the procedure that Archmagos Chertovsky Upsilon-28 intended to undergo was not so standard. Radical, some might say. Yet it was necessary. All of his progress as a tech-priest had led to this moment. Some on Mars thought him dead, for how long he had been absorbed in his own calculations, cut off from the greater machinations of the Cult. It was time for his second rebirth. Like the emergence of the Omnissiah, and the crafting of the ancient warriors of Terra – Custodian, Space Marine, and the like – Chertovsky was preparing for a metamorphosis. Decades worth of valuable resources had gone into the gene-crafting and augmetic specs for this new body. It almost seemed like a waste, even to the Archmagos, but what was one masterwork body compared to all the industry of the Imperium? This was a form suitable to the ongoing work of someone as ambitious as Chertovsky Upsilon.

Flesh disappeared, replaced or covered by layers of technological augmentation. The corpse became a skeleton of metal and wire, before the outer plating was affixed. For how much the Archmagos had dwelled on this design, it was rather simple. At its core it kept a humanoid form, yet that was but the chassis for the true ingenuity of the shell. Numerous ports and mechadendrite-mountings would allow for all the adaptability and modularity a senior Magos would expect and demand, while the central unit retained a degree of strength, of majesty. This was enhanced further by the final addition – the Abeyant. Like the shell of an isopod, the outer casing loomed about the skull-like visage of the husk’s face, before arcing back in broad segmentae down to the waist. Not just a mechanism for locomotion and adaptation alone, equipped as it was with repulsor-stabilizers and even more servo-ports – it was the main housing of Chertovsky’s primary obsession…

A wise soul once said that the most key step along the Quest for Knowledge was in fact learning how to learn, and the Lord-Archmagos had taken that concept into his synthetic heart. Where other tech-priests might become enamored by more “impressive” technologies, Chertovsky’s earliest training had been as an augmeticist. Risking his very life, he had delved into the ways one could enhance their own brain, expanding databanks and supplementing processing power. From thereon, all other tasks had seemed simple by comparison. Once one could manipulate the very core of their being – their means of accruing knowledge – no further obstacles were ever so insurmountable.

As such, the Abeyant of Chertovsky’s awaiting shell was the home of its multi-brain. Not just a single casing with neuro-uplinks, but a chain of multiple wetware cogitators assembled with painstaking precision by the Archmagos himself. In a moment of rather base lust, Chertovsky wondered what that high would feel like – to leave behind this venerable but utilitarian body and jack-in to the computational power of that hardware.

It might kill him, but that was of little concern.

A great many hours later, and at least one changing-out of the assistant adepts, the work was at last complete. Or rather, everything but the final step.

The body had been crafted. From a being of cloned flesh had been forged a suitable masterwork of steel. Its core was almost reminiscent of a Skitarii warrior in its semi-skeletal armored form, though additional layers of plating in several sections gave the suit a more martial appearance. From a harness about the waist emerged the stumps of numerous ports that would soon be host to whatever tangle of mechadendrites the Archmagos might require, though still the body retained its arms and legs in honor of what it had once been. The face was like a hybrid between a skull and a gas mask, its goggle-like eyes unlit and dormant, flanked by several lenses to allow for an impressive range of enhanced sight. Despite being laid on its back within the operation-scaffold, the body was almost sat up due to the size of the Abeyant on its back, like an upended turtle. Coupled with the broad mantle of the form’s shoulders, the metallic hood of the mounted processor provided an impressive silhouette, while the port-studded and armored carapace gave the whole figure impressive size and solidity. It looked somewhat ungainly, but that would be fixed once all the needed mechadendrites were attached.

“It is time.” The Archmagos said, more to himself than the nearby assistants.

“A triumph of artifice, m’lord!” the lead adept lauded. His own form was reminiscent of a Sicarian guard, and far better assembled than the mess Chertovsky had allowed himself to become in his single-minded focus of late, yet even that younger tech-priest’s impressive shell could not hold a lumen to the creation that sat just behind a layer of sealed glass.

“Engage the final routines. I take my leave.” Chertovsky said, shambling over to the airlock.

“Are you assured of your safety, m’lord?” the adept pressed, though he did not stop his superior, “What are we to do in case of complications?”

“Irrelevant details. I have composed the final algorithms myself,” the Archmagos replied, stepping into the first hall of the sterilization chamber and turning to meet the glass eyes of his assistant, “The commendations for you and your associates have already been sent to Magos Set. If this operation results in my expiration, it shall not impact your rewards.”

There was a pause then, and so Chertovsky concluded that their exchange was over, and yet – quite against all etiquette of the Mechanicus – the adept asked a final question. A base question, but one that almost managed to halt the Archmagos in its sincerity.

“M’lord – are you afraid?”

Chertovsky paused for but half a second before he pushed the button to seal the airlock. Beneath a hooded miter of Martian red, a static face of wires and lenses could do nothing to convey emotion. Yet within the modulated voice of the Archmagos there was a timbre of something great. An almost human emotion.

“Not anymore.”

Lord-Archmagos Chertovsky Upsilon-28 pressed the button, and was alone. Within the next room, an operating mounting awaited him. Bending to his neural inputs, Chertovsky saw his various supplemental readouts go dead as he detached the case that contained what remained of his brain from all ports but his locomotive motors. He proceeded into the surgery theater and entrusted his mind to the pre-programmed hands of his servitors.

—

It was an uncommon thing for a tech-priest to dream. Periods of dormancy might occur, but to dream required that the core cogitator – the brain – should slip into an unconscious state. If they so wished, a cyborg of the Mechanicus might “sleep” and awake an indefinite amount of time later as if no time had passed at all.

With this sacrifice are you brought into the fold of the Machine God. With this augmentation of your body is your soul made more pure.

But Chertovsky indulged himself. There was no real way to regulate his sensory inputs as his brain itself was handled, and so a quick injection of some anesthetic helped to ease the process along. His mind swam within currents that had been long forgotten to him – as if he could dip for but a moment into the cerebral waters of the Immaterium itself.

How long until I am like you?

Are there any limits to the Omnissiah’s path? You say I must keep some of my flesh – but when is flesh superior to iron?

To have one’s very grey matter manipulated, even while under sedative, was a surreal experience. One did not “feel” anything, and yet they felt even the slightest disturbance as if it touched at their very soul.

Are you afraid?

This is but one offering – one ascension – which you shall make today.

Man and Machine. This union between our two empires. For from humanity are our souls born, and through the godlike Machine are they made strong.

You do not understand. I see the true potential of this crude matter. This was my first step. I have learned how to learn.

There was a change. A switch. Something connected, something came online. Chertovsky could not know yet how long the surgery had taken, but it was as if his mind had forgotten its own senses. Bare inklings of readouts – felt more than seen – were like breaths of pure air to a forgotten prisoner.

Are you afraid?

The flesh is weak. It is pain.

By the Omnissiah you are anointed. By the Omnissiah are you reborn.

Are you dreaming?

Awake.

Beyond the glass of the surgical theater, the assisting adepts watched the servitor arms retreat from their charge. Hissing and clanging sounded as stabilizers and therapeutic regulators detached.

[CONNECTIONS ONLINE]

The monitor readout was confirmed by one of the adepts.

[CORE REACTOR EQUALIZED. NEURAL SIGNATURE STABLE.]

“Finalize.” The lead adept gave the one order needed, and his compatriot entered the code to end the automated routines and release the Archmagos’ shell from its bonds.

Within the sockets of Chertovsky’s silver, skull-like face, electric blue lights flickered to life.